


all the small things

by VolxdoSioda



Series: MerMay 2019 (Complete) [7]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: "HOW DO YOU LOSE AN ENTIRE CITY", "I'M SORRY SIR PLEASE DON'T FIRE ME", "well we don't know sir one minute it was there and the next it was gone", And somewhere the Emperor goes "how do you LOSE an entire city", Gen, MerMay Day 7, also featuring Soft Forehead Kisses and Gross Parents That Flirt In Front Of Their Child(ren), also soft Cor because that is my weakness, and Aulea being Best Queen, and Leviathan as The Goddess That Wasn't Angry For Once, in which Insomnia becomes Atlantis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-28
Updated: 2019-05-28
Packaged: 2020-03-26 12:03:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19005424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VolxdoSioda/pseuds/VolxdoSioda
Summary: Queen Aulea comes from the sea. King Regis, from the land. From their union comes Prince Noctis, and a sharp turn in the Draconian's plans regarding the fate of Insomnia.





	all the small things

When Prince Noctis was born, Cor had been away. He'd been away, so he hadn't gotten to witness a birth the nurses had called  _beautiful,_ or welcome a child that had been both human and Mer, proof of the peace held between the ocean and the land after a time of terrible strife.

And shortly before his return to the Citadel, Queen Aulea took her son to the waters, to raise him in the depths. King Regis had kissed her on the front steps, had understood, even as the public wondered  _why couldn't she raise the Prince there at the Citadel?_

The answer was simple: because Queen Aulea was not human, would never be human, and King Regis respected his Queen as much as he respected any member of the royal household.

So Cor did not set eyes on Noctis when he was born. No, it wasn't until later - nearly three years later - that he got the chance.

 

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

 

Cor is standing outside in the gardens, supervising a tea gathering between the Queen and her "aunts", and the King and Clarus when something tugs on his pants leg. Confused, he glances down, and then his eyebrows shoot up.

There is a boy in the fountain. A boy with Regis' dark hair, and Aulea's bright eyes, and a thumb stuck in his mouth as he tugs again on Cor's pants, as if he didn't already have his complete attention. Cor glances over to ensure His Majesty is still alright, and then carefully kneels down.

"Hello," he says quietly. "Are you Noctis, then?"

The boy smiles, hiding behind the hand in his mouth as babies do, but gives a shy nod. Cor doesn't know how the development of Mers stem compared to that of human children, but given Noctis seems to understand, Cor will keep talking to him like he's an individual, rather than a baby.

"Do you want out of the water?"

Noctis shakes his head, and waves a hand, sticky with...  _something_ towards  Queen Aulea. 

"You want your mother?"

A bob of the head, and the sticky little hand patting the water beside him.

"You want your mother to come swim with you?"

A firmer bob of the head, and clapping. Cor's gotten it right, it seems.

He nods. "I will see if Her Majesty would be so inclined. If you would wait a  moment, Your Highness."

"Noc!" the boy calls as he gets up. "Noc, Noc, Noc!"

"Noctis darling, are you bothering the Marshal?"

Cor looks up to find Queen Aulea standing there, amused, but not surprised. "Not at all ma'am. He wants you to come swim with him."

"Does he, now." Aulea looks down at her son, and then tuts. "Noctis, whatever have you gotten into now? You've got-- is that-- Noctis did you sneak down into the sewers again?"

Cor grimaces a bit at that, and thanks his mental stars he didn't touch Noctis' hand. 

Noctis just giggles as his mother hefts him up, little black tail remniscent of a koi fish slapping against her hip as she carries him over to the table. Cor sees the look on Regis' face when he spots Noctis, and more importantly, he spots the absolutely hysterical  _glee_ on Noctis' face when he spots Regis.

"DA!" Noctis screams, and starts trying to climb his mother, tail slapping away the whole time. "DA DA DA DA!"

"Yes dear, I see that. Regis, you've got incoming. Be gentle, Noct--"

The rest of the words are drowned out as Noctis all but  _launches_ himself at his father once close enough, and proceeds to happily grab hold of his father's beard and pet it as Regis laughs and holds him securely, eyes twinkling as he watches his son.

"Hello there my little starfish. Are you tormenting your poor mother again?" 

Noctis babbles something back, but Regis appears to hang on to every word, humming and nodding as if he's being spoken to by the wisest man in the room. There's no mistaking the absolute love in the man's expression, or that of Aulea's, as she looks at her husband and child. The "aunts" look surprised, but after a moment they murmur something to Aulea, and take their leave.

Cor sees them as far as the gates, and then returns to the royal couple. Regis is rocking Noctis to sleep, and Aulea is standing by his shoulder, humming a song that makes Cor himself feel tired.

"Marshal," Aulea calls quietly as he goes to return to his shadowed spot by the fountain. "Call him Noct. He likes that."

 _Noct._ "Noct it is, then."

On his father's shoulder Noctis gives a sleepy little huff, as if to say  _well of course._

 

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

 

Noctis grows fast, and soon the Citadel walls are echoing with the sound of Noctis running around at all hours of the day. Discovering human legs has been a joy for the young heir, who has taken to climbing stairs and chairs and walls and things that ought not be climbed. Never have Cor's reflexes been tested so sorely before - or his temper. The temper is less about Noctis and more about the glib remarks from his co-workers about how he's on "royal babysitting duty" now, and how "The Immortal" will go down in history for that, rather than anything useful.

Still, he recognizes Noctis is young, and young children are meant to get into trouble. So he ignores the remarks and keeps tight on the heels of the little Prince, and thanks his own lucky stars he does, because that morning Noctis decides he's going to climb the tree in his mother's favorite garden, and nearly dies as a result.

"Noctis Lucis Caelum," Aulea bellows, "You get down from there right now!"

"I could warp up, dear--"

"I'm not having both of you put in the hospital for this nonsense--"

And then, Cor sees it. The branch under Noctis' left leg bends down low, lower, lower yet, and  _snaps._

He's already moving by the time Aulea screams, by the time Regis calls a sword from the Armigier. Noctis is already falling, and Cor moves like he's fighting Gilgamesh all over again and his life is on the line.

He barely makes it, but he throws himself down at the last second, and  _rolls_ as Noctis hits his chest, slamming his back into the trunk of the tree and wrapping his arms around the heir to protect him and take on as much damage as he can. 

"Cor!"

"Oh Stars below, Marshal!"

Cor is winded, his back feels like it's been snapped in half, but Noctis is alive. He's alive, and crying, and patting Cor's face sobbing "Cor, Cor no!"

"I'm fine, Highness," he wheezes out. "Fine, Noct."

Noctis of course, doesn't believe him. He sobs like he's been personally gutted, and isn't soothed even when Aulea picks him up and rocks him while Regis helps Cor to his feet.

"Gods above man, bless that speed of yours," Regis says, and then wraps him up in a hug like he hasn't done since they were on the road. "And how dare you frighten me like that, Cor Leonis! You go and hurt yourself--"

Before he can say more, Cor finds himself with an armful of unhappy Noctis, who climbs him and pats his face and presses sloppy kisses to his forehead in an effort to "Make boo boos better".

"Noct, I'm fine," Cor says, when he's given a moment to breathe, and Noctis no longer looks like he's fixing to cry at every little move. "Honest. But you mustn't climb that tree again, okay? Not until you're older. You could have been seriously hurt."

"Sorry," Noctis hiccups. "Sorry Cor."

"Thank the Tidemother everyone is alright," Aulea sighs, pressing a hand to her breast. "I swear between the two of you, I'll be going grey this time next fall."

"And you'll still be positively radiant, my dear," Regis says, pressing a kiss to her hands. She swats her husband away, although there's a pink tinge to her cheeks as she does.

"Hush, you old fool--"

"O' Light of my life, radiant moon--"

"Ick," Noctis mutters into Cor's chest, covering his eyes so he doesn't have to see the King and Queen kissing each other. 

"Ick is right, Highness," Cor mutters back, rolling his eyes as he goes to give the loving couple a moment to compose themselves. 

 

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

 

Time passes. Noctis and Aulea come and go from the royal palace with the movement of the tides, and Regis ages under the weight of the Wall and the ring. 

Aulea hates it. She wants to take Regis and his closest and bring them back to the sea with her and Noctis - make them into what they are.

 _"it wouldn't be hard, love,"_ she tells Regis, when he asks her,  wide-eyed,  _how._ " _It's a simple ceremony. You would be presented to the Tidemother, and she would bless you with the power of scales. We would craft you each a skin woven from another, and you would be able to come and go as you want. You would age as we do, live as we do. All this would be gone."_

But yet, who would protect Insomnia? Who would hold back Niflheim, who continues to advance onwards with every passing day?

Aulea hasn't given up. Nor has Regis. Regis understands that as King, he has expectations. And he will meet those expectations until he can no longer, and then he will agree to Aulea's terms, and go. Cor understands. They love Insomnia, but Aulea did not marry for peace. She married because she loved Regis, and her kind do not let go of love easily. It kills them.

So Regis will remain mortal, as will Clarus and and Gladiolus and Ignis and Prompto, until he can no longer. And then their kingdom will be brought beneath the waves, and Niflheim will take the land.

Cor doesn't count himself among their numbers. He is a soldier, has always been one. And someone will have to hold the Kingsglaive and Crownsguard together. 

But one morning, Noctis stops in the hallway between lessons, and says, "You're important too, Cor."

Cor pauses himself. "What's brought this on?"

Noctis always seems to have such a delicate way about him, until one remembers who he is. Where he comes from. And the way he looks at Cor now, like he can see right through him, shows that. "When we go," he says -  _not if, when_ \- "you'll come too."

"I can't leave the Crownsguard and Kingsglaive behind."

"They're coming with."

Cor snorts. "Didn't your mother say 'Regis and his closest?'"

"She means everyone Dad loves. You, Clarus, his family, my friends, our fighters. Everyone willing to come with us." He fiddles with a strand of hair. "Mom won't say it, but our numbers... we age slow, and we don't breed very often. New blood keeps us going, more than breeding does. So if we can gather an entire kingdom, and bring you all before the Leviathan? It's a win-win."

Cor says nothing to that - what is there to say to a confession by the Crown Prince that dragging an entire kingdom beneath the ocean is considered a good idea?

But far more than that, what does a soldier say when the Crown Prince tells him  _you're important too,_ and means it with such brutal honesty that it cuts Cor's breath out of his chest?

Regis takes one look at him later, and laughs. Cor throws a pillow at him, and stalks outside, unable to stop himself from feeling like he's eighteen all over again, and embarrassed to be caught having emotions.

 

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

 

It all comes to a head sooner rather than later. 

Maybe Niflheim got impatient. Maybe the lure of power, of a kingdom hidden away behind a wall of power granted by the Gods was too great. Or maybe something just snapped, a thin balance they hadn't seen was there until this moment, but it doesn't matter now. Because someone got inside the Wall and destroyed the amplifiers and the additional protections, and now the Wall is down and Insomnia is being overrun.

Aulea doesn't wait for permission. She doesn't ask for it, either. She hefts Regis up with one burly arm, barks at Clarus, "Grab all your men and women that want to live and tell them to follow!" and then snags her son with her other arm and starts marching.

Ignis and Gladio and Prompto are already there, waiting, alongside with Iris, Talcott and the others. 

"The Crownsguard are assembled sir," Monica murmurs as the monarchs pass. "All of those that wanted to accept the change are here."

"And the Kingsglaive?"

"The same, sir. Titus has them on standby. We're moving out as a unit."

Cor nods, and starts following. At some point Noctis slips back with him, wrapping a hand securely around his wrist, and tugging him a little further in, closer to the heart of the group. The Glaives are ahead, Titus watching them approach with wide eyes, but there's resolve there.

"Your Majesties. The Tidemother was spotted over the bridge. What do we need to do?"

Aulea smiles, and there's nothing  _human_ in it. "Absolutely nothing. We're not leaving the Citadel. She already knows my plan, and has approved it. We're bringing Insomnia and her people with us. All of us."

"Mom," Noctis says, "Are you--"

"I'll be fine, dear. Tired, but fine. Now, all of you, to the throne room."

Cor's heart is slamming in his chest so hard he thinks it might rupture something. This is Gilgamesh all over again - the not  _knowing._ But Noctis strokes a thumb over his wrist, and looks up at him and mouths  _it'll be okay,_ and Regis looks at him and nods, and Cor thinks he can hold on a little longer. 

The doors are securely locked behind them once everyone is inside. The walls within are painted an unearthly blue glow, and Aulea ascends the steps alone. She raises her arms to the glass ceiling, and speaks a word that makes Cor's spine shiver in his skin, and all his hair stand on end. 

There's a  _screech,_ a scream that only the Tidemother herself could give, and then the world trembles. 

Cor gasps, hits the ground hard. Around him, he can feel others do the same. Coughing, hacking, hissing, there's nothing but  _agony_ as his body begins to shiver and jerk and twitch. 

Hands on his face, cupping his jaw. Noctis' bright eyes looking at him, no longer human. He says something, but Cor can't hear the words, and as he watches Noctis loses the pale hues of human for the darker, striking features of his mer self. His long tail wraps around Cor, arms coming up to hold him in a hug. When Cor looks, he can see Aulea already in full form, her long crimson body wrapped around Regis, holding the man as he trembles, white froth bubbling from his lips as the transformation takes.

Cor has to shut his eyes then, as the pressure behind his temples takes a terrible turn, and he holds onto Noctis as the Tidemother's magic seizes them all, and drags them down.

He feels the cold touch of water against his legs - fins? - and cracks one eye open. The Citadel is filling with water - the glass above is broken, as are all the windows, and the door is cracking, breaking with the pressure. He shuts the eye, and lifts a hand to touch Noctis' shoulder, ground himself as everything he knows vanishes.

 ** _"AS ONE",_** a terrible voice bellows in his ears, a voice he can now understand, feminine and mighty, wrathful as any rightful Empress of the Seas,  ** _"RETURN TO THE SEAS FROM WHENCE YOU CAME, LITTLE SPECKS. RETURN, AND REJOICE, FOR YOU ARE HOME AT LAST."_**

And then the doors blast open, and the water  _pours_ in, and outside he can hear shots still firing, but hitting only water as Insomnia sinks below the seas, taking an entire populace with it, and Cor breathes cold water that tastes like freedom, and hears Noctis whisper  _"It's okay Cor, it's okay, you're doing so well, just a little more."_

For his King, for his Prince, for his namesake, he holds on.

Just a little more.

 

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

 

He wakes slowly, to fingers gently grazing above his ears. There's no pain, no sound. Nothing but the peaceful waves and the murmur of the Tidemother in the far, far reaches of Altissia. She sleeps still, roused temporarily by Aulea's desires, by her plea to their Empress, but now She slumbers again, tired. Cor opens his eyes, and for a moment, nothing has changed. 

Breathing water is different, but the same. Moving is different, but the same. Heavier. Harder. Cor's arms don't immediately support him when he tries to get up. On the throne, he can see Aulea curled around a dark grey Mer, and when he focuses, he realizes it's Regis, his crown still tucked into hair returned to its sleek black, looking younger, for all that he has the grey beard still. His eyes are open, if only barely, as his Queen gently rubs a hand up and down his scaly back, soothing him. 

"Cor?" Noctis whispers, and his face comes into view. Dark scales, black like the skies above, but in the right light they seem to shimmer in rainbow hues. "Are you okay? Mom said the transformation was harder the older you guys were."

Cor hums softly. He leans into the touch at his temple, excusing his impropriety once - Noctis evidently doesn't care, and he doubts Aulea does either, if the little smiles she aims at him is anything to go by. Then again, are they even technically royalty anymore? Or are they all equal here?

"Just so you know," Noctis murmurs, sliding close enough that Cor can feel his tail twin with Cor's own. "You make a pretty merman. You're a lionfish - red and white. Lots of people are gonna want to marry you."

"Don't want to marry," Cor mumbles back. "M'tired."

Noctis hides a snicker against his shoulder. "I'll tell them to go away then, until you're not tired anymore."

"M'kay. Noct?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

Noctis' face glows pink, and he looks anywhere that isn't Cor. "Wasn't my idea."

"But you were here. Thanks." He closes his eyes, and goes back to napping. He wasn't kidding about being tired. And if the still bodies of his comrades around them are any indication, nobody's going to be getting up after today anyhow.

He feels lips touch his forehead, an old memory of sloppy child kisses coming to the forefront of his mind. 

"Anytime."


End file.
